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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.